Stephen F. Austin State University
Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes
2007 Meeting #355
February 14, 2007
Subject to approval at the 356th meeting.
Senators present were: Norjuan Austin(1), Julia Ballenger(2), Joe Ballenger(3); Chair, Chris
Barker(4); John Boyd(5), Mary Nelle Brunson(6), Deborah Bush(7), Linda Calvacca(8), Warren
Conway(9), Jeannie Gresham(11); Chair-elect, Marc Guidry(12);
Gina Haidinyak(13);
Secretary, Kayce Halstead(14); Kevin Langford(15), Perry Moon (16), Wanda Mouton(17),
Debbie Pace(18), Jeana Paul-Urena(19), Anita Powell(20), Elton Scifres(21), Sally Ann
Swearingen(22), Mark Turner(23), Michael Walker(26); Treasurer, Elizabeth Witherspoon(27).
Excused: Deborah Dunn(10), Dan Unger(24), Brian Utley(25)
Guest: Dr. James Howard
Call to Order
The meeting was called to order at 2:30 p.m. by Chair Chris Barker at the Tracy Pearman
Alumni Center.
Guests
(Drs. Pattillo, Young, and Berry were away from campus)
Announcements
Chair Barker announced that a TACT bill (HB894) filed recently with the Texas Legislature
seeks to raise faculty salaries.
Approval of minutes
Motion to approve minutes of meeting 354 was made by Senator Boyd, and 2nded by Senator
Witherspoon. Motion passed.
Committee Reports
Chair’s report—Chair Barker and Senator Guidry met with Danny Gallant and learned that a
portion of salaries for coaches do come from 0&M budget. Mr. Gallant was optimistic about
efforts being made to improve funding for academics and provide a more transparent budget
operation. He mentioned that joining a system would add another layer of bureaucracy to
campus governance. He also cautioned that there are outside forces, i.e. the possibility of the
federal government raising the minimum wage, that could affect our budget.
Chair-elect’s report —Regarding the meeting with Danny Gallant and Debbie Sellman, Chairelect Guidry added that the amount of money mentioned that comes from 0&M is $1mil --$1.2
million for the baseball and equestrian programs.
Gallant's advice was to move past the
baseball issue because it is here to stay, and to foster a cordial working relationship with Dr.
Pattillo because he is our conduit to the BOR.
Treasurer--no report
Secretary—no report
Academic Affairs—Senator Walker distributed his report regarding the Survey of Department
Heads: Workload and additional compensation.
He felt there had been good response to the survey. He received 12 responses from a total of
28 email requests. The responses are summarized as follows:
Four departments indicated it was rare to have overloads. Each of these departments indicated that when
overloads occurred, faculty were provided additional compensation. The compensation ranged from a fixed
stipend to salary equivalence.
Three departments stated overloads were common across most faculty in all ranks. Overloads ranged from
3 TLC to 12 TLC annually per faculty. This equates to 1-4 additional courses offered by an individual faculty
member each year. Of these departments, no additional compensation was provided to faculty for
overloads.
Two departments responded with interest but provided no specific information or indicated salaries were
provided outside the university budget.
Senator Moon asked about any consistency with teaching organized classes in regard to
overloads. Senator Walker responded that it was hard to say, because the data he asked for
was independent of organized classes.
His committee has also been asked to consider bringing together a panel to discuss the
systems issue. He contacted Larry King who gave him four names—all from Lamar. He has
sent an inquiry to them and now awaits a response. He then asked senators if anyone knows
someone he could query.
Senator Calvacca stated that she had been a visiting professor at Corpus Christi before it
became part of the A&M system. After it became part of a system, it flourished in terms of
faculty and student resources. She has a contact she could ask about it.
Professional Welfare —Senator Utley’s committee had been charged with creating a plan to
provide some relief for new faculty who have to wait several weeks before they get a 1st
paycheck. Senators Barker, Guidry and Utley will talk to Mr. Gallant about some ideas the
committee suggested, and work out a plan to send forward to the President. It was
recommended that information be included about new faculty having to work before their actual
contract dates, and having to be on campus early for various meetings, orientation, etc.
Ethics—No report
Elections--Senator Mouton noted that it is time to start thinking about elections. Those who are
rotating off should talk to department members and encourage them to run for office. Her
committee will be sending out a nominating form to all faculty soon. The May meeting will be
the first meeting for new members. Remind new senators of the time of the meetings so they
can adjust schedules accordingly.
Administration and Finance—Senator Scifres’ committee has been asked to look into what we
pay graduate assistants and compare it with what other schools pay. He distributed a report
with the information the Graduate office collected in August 2006. The problem is that jobs
differ depending on the department and the university. So he decided, for consistency, to look
only at graduate assistants in Biology departments. He has received feedback from 5 schools
so far and will create a report when he has more information. Chair Barker hopes the
information will provide justification to pay better salaries and hopefully, attract more grad
assistants to SFA.
Faculty governance--no report
Old business—Earlier discussions concerning the idea of studying different systems around the
state, resulted in Chair Barker asking Larry King to chair a committee to look at the various
systems and see what the best fit would be for SFA That committee created a 40 page report
which will be on the senate website. It will be discussed at the next meeting (March).
A guest, Dr. Jim Howard, was on that committee, and he stated that the report is an evaluation
of systems—not a recommendation to join or not. That decision is a separate issue. The report
has data including potential positives and negatives. No goals are stated.
A number of issues were discussed and are summarized as follows:
•
Senator Langford questions the mixed message being conveyed regarding class size—
on one hand the university boasts about small class size and individualized attention as
selling points for SFA, and yet we are being told to increase class size as a means to
strengthen the argument for higher faculty salaries.
•
Senator Guidry mentioned that the issue came up in a discussion with Danny Gallant
who said that increasing efficiency by having more large classes and fewer small
classes could result in better salaries, but there is no guarantee.
•
The goal seems to be to increase the student body, but keep faculty numbers about the
same—which could have a negative affect on our academic rating.
•
The BOR needs to be educated about actual faculty workload—which is something they
indicated they wanted in a Daily Sentinel article written last summer, " (BOR) asked
Senate Chair Barker to help hold faculty accountable for growing the enrollment" …and
“wants a quantitative report of faculty workload to help assess the problem".
Ideas
included asking faculty to keep a log of their activities for one week to indicate the
number of hours they really work. It was mentioned that this had been done two years
earlier and hadn’t made a dent. It was suggested that if Dr. Pattillo called for the time
survey and it had his backing, it might have some impact. Senator Paul-Urena
suggested the information should come from a different angle, such as inviting the Daily
Sentinel to do a profile on all that professors do, and by making it public, it could educate
the community as well. Senator Guidry suggested a visual document, such as a video,
might have more impact. Senator Julia Ballenger felt it was important to voice our
concerns through Dr. Pattillo.
Senator Langford feels that the faculty are seen as
teachers; but that for undergraduates, the faculty ARE the resources.
•
Chair Barker felt that with regard to educating the regents about what we do, there are
several things to consider positively, such as 1) the Senate Chair now has place at the
BOR Academic Affairs committee on the first day of meetings, whereas before, the
faculty senate report was in the last 10 minutes of the BOR meeting, and there had been
no forum for discussion—now there is time for 2-way discussion. Most of the regents
appreciated having a chance to ask the Senate Chair questions, so, the beginning of a
communication process does signal a change; 2) faculty are not aware of how hard
regents work either—or the many issues they grapple with; 3) keep in mind that in Dr.
Pattillo we've got someone who can communicate well with the BOR. They will listen to
him; and, 4) one significant difference—SFA hadn't changed in 20 years, and the
regents have addressed several infrastructure problems in the last 5 years. The
students care about that. The new Student center is going to be incredible, and the new
Recreation center will be a draw. The potential is here to increase enrollment which
could impact faculty salaries. How all of these things will translate to addressing
academics remains to be seen.
•
Senator Paul-Urena asked if the private funding for the baseball park had been raised?
Chair Barker did not think so. Senator Guidry feels that the administration should keep
its word about the deadline for raising the funds—if the money isn’t there by January 1,
2008, the project gets reevaluated. Senator Moon feels the senate should send a
resolution about our concern for the 75% funding the university will have to underwrite if
the 25% of private funds are raised.
New Business—
Chair Barker was asked about the pre-retirement seminars that used to be held annually.
Senator Mouton remembers that the professor who gave the seminars had retired.
Someone asked about the status of modified employment.
Professional Welfare committee look into that issue.
Chair Barker will have the
Someone asked if there was any data on turnover rate for faculty? Are departments hiring
assistant professors instead of associate or full professors?
Chair Barker wondered if departments could gather information about evidence of low salaries,
i.e. examples of faculty searches where people won't come here because of salaries, or a 10year history of faculty movement with a break down by length of service. He will send out
information regarding how to collect the data.
Adjournment
Motion to adjourn made by Senator Langford, seconded by Senator Boyd. Meeting adjourned
at 4:15pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Kayce Halstead, Secretary